South Coast News reporter Tom McGann on Black Summer heartbreak amid Central Coast fires
As the harrowing Central Coast fires keep burning, a familiar dread I haven’t felt in years hits me, when my own family home burned to the ground during Black Summer.
As the harrowing Central Coast fires keep burning, a familiar dread I haven’t felt in years hits me, when my own family home burned to the ground during Black Summer.
On New Year’s Eve in 2019, at 7am in Mogo on the state’s South Coast, my father and I stared into what resembled the gates of hell.
Wrapped in towels, long sleeves, masks and pants to brace against the heat and smoke and armed with nothing more than a garden hose with pressure so weak you could mistake it for a dribbling faucet, we were helpless Davids facing a fiery Goliath.
For a moment, we thought we might be okay – a blip of delusion spawned from sheer desperation to not lose our beloved house.
But as the minutes passed, the sky became darker, the roar louder, the wind hotter and stronger, and my mother screaming down the phone for us to immediately leave.
Then came the crushing and bleak realisation: There was absolutely nothing we could do.
I still remember the tingles when my father looked me in the eyes and said we needed to go.
We jumped into his ute – and in a heart-stopping moment the heat even affecting its ability to start – and sped off to relative safety.
By 1pm, we heard the news. Our home, the place where I was raised, took my first steps, celebrated birthdays, threw tantrums, laughed and cried, was nothing more than a pile of blackened rubble.
Worse still, with the fire changing its collision course straight towards us in a split-second that morning, we had no time to grab much.
We lost photo albums, my mum’s wedding dress, my dad’s childhood belongings – all of it reduced to ashes. Recovery took time. Mentally and physically.
Watching what is unfolding on The Central Coast, seeing families in Koolewong standing in shock as their homes burn, stirs up a pain I had pushed down deep inside.
But what it does do is reignite a thought that has rattled around my head for years: we must not be complacent.
When Black Summer tore through my hometown, we were told it was a “once in a 100-year” event. Seeing the forests levelled and streets like mine flattened, I believed it. I told myself it couldn’t possibly happen again.
The truth is it can — and will — happen again.
So, as someone who has lost a home to a “once in a 100-year” fire, I say this: Always be prepared and nothing is worth risking your life for.
Got a story? Email tom.mcgann@news.com.au
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Originally published as South Coast News reporter Tom McGann on Black Summer heartbreak amid Central Coast fires
